When to split?

[Scot Spinner]

Hi.  This is my first time with a hive surviving winter and I'd like to try to split my hive.  Any general advice would be great.  My hive seems to be extremely strong.  I just checked today with 1 deep and 3 medium, they had completely filled it and bees are coming outside during the day and lots of activity.  I just added another medium box, but I'm worried I don't have much time until they decide to swarm.

Is it too early to split?  Are there enough drones this time of year to create a queen, or should I buy one?

Final question, I don't have the largest backyard(the hive is about 40 feet from my back door) and I live in a neighborhood, should I worry about having two hives?  Might it cause issues with neighbors?

I'm also looking for a new deep box with bottom and top, if anyone has one they want to sell.

Thanks in advance!

- Scot Spinner

[Sung Han Lee]

Hello Scot

I am glad to hear your bees are doing well. 

First of all I would like to know what city you live in.

It has been warmer past few weeks and there might be some cold snap here and there. Usually by December all the drones get kicked out. However, temperature has been warmer that bees already know about warmer temperatures forth coming. I have been seeing drone cells every where from December on. One of my hives was ready to swarm that I made two splits Jan 4th. There were 5 swarm cells two capped, two almost capped and one emerged.  So I made

1. Artificial swarm- meaning that make them think they have swarmed by removing old queen and half of the population. This one i moved only 5 deep frame worth of bees and moved to different yard. They were in a Nuc box now I need to move them to Deep box. 

2. Removed Virgin queen with split. Moved to another yard.

3. Introduced a spare mated queen( mated last September)to original hive four days after the split. As of Saturday ( Jan. 18th)

 she is laying on the third box.

Now whole focus is on the virgin queen. I have big doubt that she was able to get mated. As of Saturday Jan. 19th. she doesn't

 look like mated. It has been 15 days since the split. 

Back to you Scot

It is good to seeing the colony is thriving.  It was a good move that

 you added a super. It would helped if the frames are drawn. I see nectar flow is not on yet that frames with new foundation rarely drawn. But drawn comb frames are utilized as soon as provided. So some how you need to keep them busy till at least March. Why March? That's when the drones are plentyful that virgin queen will get mated properly i mean well mated.

If your neighbor have not complaint last October you are OK. 

Also i usually recommend at least two hives instead of one. Then you have another hive to compare with. Your learning curve will accelerate by comparing between the two. On top of that if anything happens to one hive you can always borrow from the other hive visa versa. 

You can watch this on my channel 

https://youtu.be/nALa-yKITlw?si=Fd1j0bjhjiQ1wIfq

I have lots of hardware you can choose from. 

You can reach out to me

5104143216

Sung Lee The Bee Charmer 

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[Christine Hyung-Oak Lee]

What Sung said...

Plus: I usually don't split until the rainy season is over. (That varies year by year). The main concern is that there be good mating weather 3-ish weeks from the date of the split. Good mating weather being a stretch of weather that is dry and above 65F. That usually means late February or March at the earliest. And of course, it depends not only on yearly weather trends but your geographical location (which is why Sung asked where you live). 

Splitting is a way to reproduce the colony and create an additional one. You want to also split to avoid swarming (and also mite control by inducing a brood break). But what if the hive is so full you have to do something, now? (And the weather isn't quite stable yet)?

You can hold off swarming/buy time by adding a box of empty frames the first week of February. And then in the first week of March (if we assume the colony is growing) you can add an empty box of frames below the top box.

That'll buy you time until the consistently warmer/drier weather arrives. 

Christine

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Christine Hyung-Oak Lee

http://www.christinehlee.com/

Instagram

[gmau...@earthlink.net]

Hey Scot...  I share your concerns of swarming and your desire to split to prevent it.  Typically splits in our area are made early March/April.  However, last year I made three splits in mid Feb and by late Mar all three had laying queens.  The prior year, I helped Christine Edwards make about a dozen in late Feb and only about half returned a mated queen.  The year before THAT, I did splits late Feb and ALL failed to return a mated queen.  It's an odds game.  The odds of the colony swarming increase as you get closer to April but odds of a split getting a mated queen to return also increases.  The primary factors in getting a mated queen are 1) are drones available and 2) will it NOT rain for the entire time she needs to take her mating flight(s).  This year, winter has been fairly dry and warm and I've been seeing drones in my colonies starting around a month ago.  If you are going to split, consider making several (two or three?) smaller splits in NUC boxes (vs. a single big one) to increase your odds of getting a mated queen to return.  Check this out if you want or need help with splitting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWnGtKCMGZM&t=4s).

[Scot Spinner]

Thanks so much. I live in El Sobrante. It is a ways away, but I
can't find a closer bee association.

Sounds like I have a lot to learn. But at least I have some ideas of
how to slow them down a bit. That is very helpful! I think I'll try
to harvest as much honey as I can and give them more space to keep
them busy.

Does anybody sell queens? It feels like if I could just buy one that
would be a lot simpler for my first split.

Thanks, Scot

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[Catherine Edwards]

Hi Scot,  

I have my hives in Richmond and El Sobrante.  I just started to look through them a bit and harvest some honey. I am still leaving some as we don't know what the weather will be. It is cooler here than further south where some hives have already swarmed. It is not yet time to split hives, but you can make sure there is laying room in the brood nest. 

I have some extra equipment I can share if you are okay with clean used boxes.

When I place hives in a yard I want them 30 feet away from neighbors' houses so as not to have stinging complaints. Usually two hives works fine then.

Catherine

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[gmau...@earthlink.net]

Scott,  Finding a mated queen this time of year is like finding hen's teeth.  You may be able to get one shipped in from Hawaii, but the people I know that have done that have experienced their queens getting superseded after a few months.   Use this up coming season to raise you level of beekeeping by making and keeping queen or two on reserve.  Those that do are able to address the stressful situation of a queenless hive AND it's fun.  Making queens is a very rewarding part of beekeeping.